Figuring Out Evergreen and Jeffco Schools

In Evergreen we are proud of our schools from pre- kindergarten all the way through the high schools.  Our kids are fortunate to have some of the top rated schools in the country.  Evergreen students can attend schools in Evergreen, Conifer, Golden and Clear Creek County as well as open enrolling throughout Jefferson County.

But you want to dig a little deeper beyond the national test results.  Bringing up two great kids with sharply contrasting personalities and learning styles in Jeffco schools I recognize the need to learn as much about the various programs and amenities available to students at each school.  Likewise, I think there is a lot of value in visiting with the principals at each of the schools that serve the homes that you are considering.  You'll gain valuable insight on the specific personalities and styles with a face to face meeting that the principals' mission statements won't provide.  So I've put together a wealth of resources to help in the analysis.

The first , and most intuitive is related to the listing alerts I am sending you (if you aren't receiving email alerts click here and build a search criteria).

In the alert you receive in your inbox simply click on the address or details button.

This brings you to the web site for the individual listing and I've packed as much information about each home in that page as possible!

In addition to having the typical price, size, bedrooms, map and mortgage calculator there is a quick link to the Jefferson County Public Schools that serve the home and a link to www.GreatSchools.org for the community.

GreatSchools.org makes an effort to combine test scores like CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success) and TCAP (Transitional Colorado Assessment Program) scores with community feedback about the schoools. 

In 2013-2014 Colorado used the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) to test students' skills in reading, writing and mathematics in grades 3 through 10. The TCAP is a standards-based test, which means it measures how well students are mastering specific skills defined for each grade by the state of Colorado. The goal is for all students to score at or above proficient on the test. The TCAP replaced the CSAP as Colorado's state assessment program effective for the 2011-2012 school year. 

Source: Colorado Department of Education

They also aggregate information about the college readiness of high schoolers, AP testing and even ACT scores at the high school levels and PARC testing for elementary schools.

If you happen to find a home you are interested while browsing through Zillow the school resources are a little more difficult to find  but equally helpful.  Really, it's the same information but in a different format.  Once on the individual listing just scroll down to the various drop down menus and find the one labelled for schools: 

Then click through to the schools you are most interested in and see more resources:

Those links provide quick glimpses of each school from k-12 but if you want to dig even deeper I recommend using the JEFFCO Public Schools Page to get individual school information direct from the source.

This site has information about every Jeffco Public and Charter School including Evergreen, Golden, Conifer and Morrison.  Because of the number of schools on the site it may be easiest to determine the school that serves a home you are interested in first using the information provided on the alert and take that information to the Jeffco page to dig into that specific school.

Once there you'll see comprehensive information about Gifted and Talented Programs, Athletics, Busing information and even the vision for the future of each school.  Perhaps most importantly is the contact information for the various administrators.

One resource I find especially helpful is the Interactive District Map which helps you visualize where each school is relative to an address you are interested in with a link to the profile of each school. 

This will get you started with public schools.  

If you start leaning toward private schools the resources are driven by each individual school.  There are some aggregators of private school information and the two that my clients have described as the most helpful are: www.Livability.com and www.PrivateSchoolReview.com .

I am happy to reach out to administrators at each school to help arrange a site visit/campus tour and interviews with the principals.  Since most information out there is related to averages and test scores I've always found that visiting with the individuals that make the policy and interact with the children is more valuable than the testing results.  Let me know if you'd like help in this direction!